Among various electronic goods, cameras are small-sized and high-priced goods, so the cameras are frequently targeted by thieves.
Particularly, cameras for professionals are very expensive goods that cost several thousand dollars or several tens of thousand dollars, and lens modules for such expensive cameras also cost several thousand dollars.
A store manager who sells these expensive cameras while exhibiting them should pay careful attention to his inventory so as to prevent the cameras from being stolen or lost when there are persons around the exhibited merchandise.
However, a manager may be distracted, so a thief may seize the opportunity to steal an expensive camera.
Accordingly, although it is required to provide a device for preventing such expensive cameras for professionals from being stolen or lost, an effective device for preventing an expensive camera for professionals from being stolen or lost has not been proposed or used in the related art.
However, a device for preventing middle- or low-priced cameras for non-professionals from being stolen or lost has been proposed in the related art. For example, Korean Patent Application Publication No. 2008-0082999 discloses “an image processing device having a function of preventing a camera from being stolen or lost”.
The image processing device having the function of preventing the camera from being stolen or lost disclosed in Korean Patent Application Publication No. 2008-0082999 was proposed according to the recent rapid development of information communication technologies, wherein the image processing device including an alarm was adopted to receive a frequency signal transmitted from an oscillator, embedded in the camera, oscillating at a predetermined frequency, and to generate an alarm sound when the camera deviates from a place by a predetermined distance to the extent that a frequency signal is not received.
As another related art relating to a device for preventing a camera from being stolen or lost, Korean Patent Application Publication No. 2008-0079416 discloses “a distance detection method using response time between Bluetooth devices, a method of preventing loss using the same, and a portable terminal using the same”.
“The distance detection method using response time between Bluetooth devices, the method of preventing loss using the same, and the portable terminal using the same” disclosed in Korean Patent Application Publication No. 2008-0079416 are provided to detect the deterioration of Bluetooth communication quality or the disconnection of Bluetooth communication using a local area network between terminal products having a Bluetooth function when the terminal deviates from a predetermined distance due to its theft or loss, and to detect a distance between the two terminals based on detected information, thereby enabling an alarm sound to be generated when the terminal is determined to be stolen or lost.
In both Korean Patent Application Publication No. 2008-0082999 “the image processing device having the function of preventing the camera from being stolen or lost” and Korean Patent Application Publication No. 2008-0079416 “The distance detection method using response time between Bluetooth devices, the method of preventing loss using the same, and the portable terminal using the same”, local area communication technologies were used.
In order for a local area communication technology to be applied to an expensive camera, a wireless communication module for enabling wireless communication should be separately mounted to the camera, and an alarm in which another wireless communication module for wirelessly performing transmission and reception with the wireless communication module mounted to the camera is embedded should be provided.
A wireless communication module is somewhat expensive, the wireless communication module may be malfunctioned or may not be operated, and a wireless signal transmitted or received from the wireless communication module may cause interference with an electrical signal upon use of the camera for photographing. Above all, when the camera deviates from the alarm by a distance of several meters or several tens of meters, since the alarm generates an alarm sound by detecting theft or loss of the camera, it is problematic in that it is not easy to regain the stolen camera by pursuing a thief on the run at that time.
In order to solve the problems occurring in the related arts, the present applicant suggested Korean Patent No. 1196832 “a device for preventing a camera from being stolen”.
The granted patent owned by the present applicant is problematic in that a screw thread should be additionally processed on an inner circumference of a lens module in order to mount a mounting unit detecting camera theft so that costs are increased, and a mounting space should be secured at the inner circumference in a housing, and in that a cable connected to the mounting unit causes inconvenience by slightly impeding use of the camera.